What a gorgeous story! I loved every minute of Laurel's journey! The writing is deep and moving. The characters are vivid and engaging. This is one book you won't be able to put down until the end.

This book drew me in and I’m not sure why I was hooked because the FMC was a little irritating I won’t lie. She just came across very naive and by the end she hadnt grown much, she was still being led in directions and never really taking control of her path. This is also not her fault, she was kept in the dark about her gift and her families past, she is also made to feel like the problem constantly, she’s pushed into the role of the shrinking violet whether she likes it or not.

This book had great world building, it was easy to grasp the magic system/source even though its so unique. I did enjoy this, I do hope that the FMC finds her footing in book 2 and forges her own path.

I was interesting indeed, also surprising.. Not sure right now the right words to describe, it was intense, a lot of world building and a interesting love story but it felt like it was so much going on at the same time and I tried to focus but it was hard.. However it felt a little bit slow at some parts and it was a bit too much slow for me

This could have been great, a unique fantasy with dark powers at our MC's core, but unfortunately it was simply left feeling unfinished for me.

We see a slow bloom romance between Laurel and Bryce, with this dark general the root of both their issues alongside laurels struggles to manage her powers. Although I am sure it was a cliffhanger for a sequel, this book simply felt unfinished after the journey we went through and I feel would be better whole than as a seperate sequel that is likely to occur.

Nonetheless, it had great worldbuilding and was filled with intrigue keeping you entranced over each page that passed.

This book is gorgeous. The pace is wonderful and the characters interesting. I literally just couldn't put it down. I hope there's a sequel. What an interesting and unique concept for a book.Beautifully written prose, enthralling and gripping storyline

First, a trigger warning: The main character in this book — in the final 10% or so of the book — is beaten, badly. Blows to the head, a broken leg, her head repeatedly held beneath ice cold water; other characters are also raped, beaten, tortured and murdered. If this is subject matter you find upsetting, this book will not be for you. I will say the scenes aren’t overly graphic and they are all relevant to the story, but they’re still there.

The story wanders between past and present as Laurel is drugged both by the “school” she lives in as well as Suzette, her fellow mage, best friend, and someone Laurel looks to as a sister, who uses her magic to soothe, guide, and calm Laurel during any moment of emotional stress. Having never been taught to use her magic, Laurel’s magic often overwhelms her and she is often powerless because of it.

During much of the book Laurel is passive, her actions limited and guided by the Headmaster of her school — which is mostly a place where young women are trained to be obedient and loyal while the Headmistress finds husbands for them — or Suzette, or even the general she is to be wed to. She’s pushed and pulled along by the plot even as she struggles to find her own footing, and only when she meets a bandit in the woods she meekly follows him until she finally has the mental clarity and strength to make a choice.

Her first choice.

This is a sad story, with no happy ending; it does, though, have a hint of a cliffhanger. Laurel isn’t plucky, brave, clever or bold. She’s a dreamer, she’s afraid, she wants to go home. She wants her life to be what it was before she knew how awful the real world is, and if the general would just go away — or if she’d been offered to anyone else as a bride — she probably would have gone along with it and simply allowed herself to drift in a world of drugs and complacency.

She’s sympathetic, for the most part, but there were times when I very much wished she would. do more, think more, fight more. She does get better, does start standing up for herself, but the first half of the book (if not more) is simply Laurel existing. Even so, she has a clear voice and a decided point of view, which is nice.

The writing is lovely, with a languid, poetic and dreamy style that suits Laurel very well. The pace is a bit lopsided, to me, with momentum in the first half being often jostled by the constant flashbacks to Laurel’s mother, or father. The magic system is never explained, which works in the context of the world as Laurel was never taught to use it, or what it is she can actually do. Everything she does is instinct and guesswork, flailing out when she’s scared or, when she tries to use it, being thought of as crazy by everyone around her.

The world building is also a highlight, with just enough hinted at to let the reader fill in the blanks and almost no exposition dumps until the end, when the swordsman who saved her in the woods has to give his backstory — which we then see in a flashback. That’s really the one part I had an issue with, how much we see of the swordsman’s story, only to have him tell us himself, and then we go off into another vision to see even more of it. But that’s the only section that stood out to me.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the writing, and want to thank Netgalley and Memento Vivere Press for giving me an ARC. (3 ½ stars rounded up to 4.)

Beautifully written prose, enthralling and gripping storyline. I enjoyed the different characters, especially Laurel’s development. Eagerly awaiting a sequel!

This book is gorgeous. The pace is wonderful and the characters interesting. I literally just couldn't put it down. I hope there's a sequel.

I LOVED EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THIS BOOK. I RATED THIS BOOK 5 STARS BECAUSE IT WAS SO GOOD AND AMAZING.

What an interesting and unique concept for a book. So ready to get swept in this magical mystical adventure. I look forward to sharing my full thoughts and review soon.